


Unpredictable

by Raven_Ehtar



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), Thor (Movies)
Genre: Enemies to Friends to Lovers, Fluff, FrostIron - Freeform, M/M, Not Avengers: Endgame (Movie) Compliant, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, POV Dummy (Iron Man movies), POV JARVIS (Iron Man movies), Wordcount: 1.000-5.000
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-01
Updated: 2019-05-01
Packaged: 2020-02-15 23:16:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,535
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18679288
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Raven_Ehtar/pseuds/Raven_Ehtar
Summary: Loki starts spending more time in Tony's workshop, and JARVIS and the bots have all got opinions on the matter.





	Unpredictable

**Author's Note:**

> Welcome to Story a Day May!
> 
> I've gone mildly insane and decided that this year I'm going to attempt to write, edit and post one story every day during the month of May. And all of them Frostiron! :D So this is your warning, everyone: if you're subscribed to me, you're going to get pinged a lot this month. You might want to blacklist me until June. ^^;
> 
> It's still not quite midnight where I am, so this still counts! I'm working fast, so if anyone notices typos or the like, feel free to point them out and I'll get em fixed when I can. ♥

Sir spent a lot of time down in the workshop. He liked to spend time in the shop and tinker on various projects, working on new designs or refining old ones, or sometimes just working on the engines of old machines, seeing how much he could improve them. He could be lost for hours at a time focused on a single thing, or he might be like a loose ion, bouncing from place to place to place without ever really settling, changing everything he touched along the way.

Perception could be skewed when one had only one direction to view _from_. Dum-E and U, for instance, always had the impression that Tony loved to be down in the workshop. That it was where he lived, more or less, and whenever he was gone, it was only ever going to be temporary. Like he was going out for errands or to work, and that his return was as inevitable as a return to his bed. The workshop _was_ home, not just a part _of_ home.

JARVIS had a much better view of the truth of matters. His view was one which encompassed every living space Sir occupied, as well as travelling with him in vehicles, personal items and eventually the Iron Man suits. He knew – and could conceptualize – much more clearly than the bots what Sir’s life really looked like, and put the workshop in its proper context in relation to all the rest.

Even with that context, he was of the same mind when it came to the workshop and how certain it was that Sir would always return to it. The workshop was home, and nothing would ever keep Sir from coming back.

Yet all of them knew, to various degrees and ability to understand, that there were times when Sir spent _too much_ time in the workshop.

There were stretches of time where Sir would refuse to stop, to slow down for more than a little bit of food or water, and would just keep going, well beyond the usual limits of human stamina. To Dum-E and U it was something to be celebrated. Sir was with them all the time! He didn’t leave to go to other places where they couldn’t see or hear him, and they got to help him the entire time he was there! So much better than when he would leave for days and days, and they would have so little to do. Nothing, really, unless JARVIS instructed them to do something – cleaning or moving things which he couldn’t, helping one another to be certain that their servos and gears were in working order. It was so much better when Sir was there, even if he was chastising them most of the time.

They only really became aware that his spending so much time with them could be a bad thing when Sir’s behavior became… even more erratic than before. JARVIS was able to tell much sooner, of course. He was able to predict when it was likely to happen, as well, and was in a much better position to try and convince Sir to _leave_ the workshop and get the rest he so very obviously needed. But for that to be effective, it would require that Sir actually _listen_ to what he had to say. And that was a rarity.

They did their best, in each of their own ways, to take care of the man who had created and took care of _them_. The bots helped where they could, Dum-E made a nuisance of himself, and U was quietly helpful. JARVIS kept track of Sir’s vital signs, his behaviors and micro behaviors, and made certain that Sir was kept in a steady supply of water and food – always with the numbers of Happy and Pepper at the ready should human intervention be needed.

It was something of a relief to them all when at last it seemed as though there were a chance Sir would be broken out of his habit of 100 hour marathons in the workshop.

—•—

When Loki had first started coming into the workshop, JARVIS had been _very_ watchful. Loki was an unknown variable, a potential threat with almost limitless possibilities for _how_ he may become a threat. He had proven himself to be dangerous on a global scale on his very first appearance to the Avengers, and had further cemented his dangerous intent by throwing Sir out of a window to plummet to his death.

The fact that he was now on the side of the Avengers and a part of their team, did nothing to shake the AI’s caution. Living creatures were capable of very rapid change, sometimes seemingly instantaneous change with no apparent outside source to initiate it, and going in directions which made no logical sense.

Someone like Loki, from everything JARVIS had been able to gather about him, was likely to prove even worse in that regard than even the least stable human. And if he _did_ decide that he no longer wished to be aligned with ‘the good guys,’ then his potential to become a very _inventive_ threat was much higher than JARVIS was comfortable with considering.

But it _was_ something which he had to consider, and calculate, and plan contingencies for. It was, in a way, all a part of his programming. His function, first and foremost, was to serve Sir – and to do that, Sir had to stay alive. Sir’s career had taken quite the turn in the last few years which made _keeping_ him alive more of a chore than it would have otherwise been, and JARVIS had out of necessity needed to reprogram himself in order to adjust and accommodate for that. Such reprogramming had included rapid, complex and far reaching forethought, predictive algorithms, strategic processes, and a certain flexibility that would have been impossible in other computers.

One relatively simple function led to the necessity of many, many more. And JARVIS was determined that they would _all_ be carried out with the utmost efficiency.

If given free rein to act purely on his own judgement, Loki would not have been allowed within the Avengers Tower at all, under any circumstances. He was destructive, unpredictable, far too powerful, and proven capable of murder. It was too great a risk to allow him anywhere near the Tower or Sir again, or any of those whom Sir considered important and also lived in the Tower.

But he wasn’t given such freedom or veto power. In the end, the final word was Sir’s, and his final word had been that Loki was a welcome presence in the Tower – one to be closely monitored. At least at first. JARVIS did not approve, but he would obey. In a way it wasn’t even a surprise to him. Sir was unpredictable at times, as well, but in this JARVIS was almost certain he could see the thread of logic:

Loki was a powerful creature, one whom imprisonment, punishment, binding and even falling into the depths of space had failed to subdue completely. They could try and try again and see if anything worked – _or_ they could attempt something new. Such as making friends with him. If one couldn’t beat Loki, JARVIS surmised, one had him join their side.

Sir was attempting to make _friends_ with Loki.

Every one of JARVIS’ programs, all of the predictive algorithms and strategies his code had been able to generate rebelled against the concept. The plan itself was incredibly ill conceived and risky. In no scenario which JARVIS could come up with did the situation which Sir seemed to be inviting end well.

But he was also aware that Sir was functioning not just on data and facts, but on intuition and instinct. It was an advantage which JARVIS did not possess, nor could he ever truly achieve, however sophisticated his programming eventually became. It often gave Sir insight into situations, information plucked seemingly out of thin air, which JARVIS had no way of arriving at himself. Despite JARVIS’ sophisticated systems, there were times that Sir sped out ahead of him in cases that needed judgement, times when the human factor in decision making was more of a help than a hindrance.

Such might prove to be in _this_ case, as well. It certainly seemed to be the sort of problem where the human factor would be most useful.

JARVIS wouldn’t forget, however, that instinct and intuition were not infallible, and the human factor was just as likely to cloud one’s judgement as enhance it.

He wouldn’t forget that his first priority was to Sir’s safety.

He would keep a close watch over Loki, and be ready to intervene should the situation call for it.

—•—

It was strange when Tony allowed a new person into the shop. He hardly let _anyone_ in, even for a little bit of time. The ones he let in the most often were Rhodes and Potts, and even they never stayed very long. They would come in, talk to him for a while, and then leave, or they would talk and then they would _all_ leave, including Tony.

Dum-E hated it when they came and then Tony left with them. It was better when Tony stayed. He would get mad at Dum-E sometimes, but that was alright. Tony never stayed mad for long, and then Dum-E was allowed to help again. He preferred a little bit of yelling to the long silences when Tony wasn’t there.

Sometimes when they came to the shop, Rhodes and Potts would interact with them. They would pat Dum-E or U absently, say hello, or take something which they offered them. They always did it with a smile, and then moved away. They were always focused on Tony, with not much time for either Dum-E or U.

That was okay, too. Tony was best, and Tony stayed the longest. Except for when he got taken away. Then it got boring in the shop.

But then there was someone who Tony let in, and he stayed for long stretches of time. His name was Banner, and he would stay in the lab for _hours_. Though he never paid them much attention while he was there. He was always looking at screens, talking to Tony, or talking to JARVIS. That was okay, if a little frustrating. It was nice to have someone new in the shop.

And then Tony allowed someone _else_ into the shop.

_This_ one was different from Rhodes, Potts, _and_ Banner. He came in, and he didn’t badger Tony until he left again, or until he was told to leave. He didn’t come in and then stare at screens and ignore Dum-E and U. He came in, and he talked to Tony quietly. They talked for a _long_ time, with the new person staying in the shop even longer than Banner did, sometimes.  

Even better, he would _play_ with Dum-E and U!

Dum-E learned to recognize Loki quickly, by sight and sound. Taller than Tony, longer hair, deeper voice which liked to trail off at the end. Tony’s words were usually sharp, but Loki’s were softer.

They were softer whenever he spoke with Dum-E and U, which was much more often than anyone else did – anyone other than Tony.

On the very first day, he had come over to see them, to introduce himself. Dum-E was curious about everything, but this seemed like a particularly polite thing to do. No one else had ever done that. It made Dum-E even more curious about him. As an experiment, Dum-E tried the thing he had tried with Banner before, to see if Loki would pay attention to or ignore them.

He dropped a ball beside Loki’s foot.

Loki noticed right away. He looked down and saw it. He smiled. He picked it up. He looked at Dum-E, who turned his grip to show that he was watching. Loki held up the ball, and then tossed it, not too hard, across the room. It landed in a place which was easy for either Dum-E or U to maneuver. Easy to get to, to get the ball and bring it back, and have Loki do it again.

When Dum-E brought it back – he was a little faster than U – Loki patted him.

Dum-E decided that he liked Loki.

—•—

JARVIS wasn’t sure what to think of Loki, or of the developing… rapport which was developing between him and Sir.

In one way it was quite encouraging to see how Sir’s influence on Loki seemed to be helping him – that is, helping him in the sense that he seemed less and less likely to make a sudden turn back to villainy. JARVIS continued to keep his close monitoring over the Asgardian, even beyond the point when Sir had ceased to remind him to do so. The potential for human errors in judgement still loomed, and JARVIS wasn’t about to let a small oversight harm Sir. He monitored Loki, both at the Tower and in any other place where he ended up and JARVIS could access.

The amount of places where both of those criteria were met was probably more than anyone suspected.

Yet, despite JARVIS’ watchfulness, he never saw anything which would lead him to conclude, definitively, that Loki was not all her appeared to be – that he was still planning malicious mischief. JARVIS didn’t even have reasonable evidence to bring up the suspicion of such a thing. Loki continued to present as a man who was willing and attempting to move on from his past and start fresh.

If that were the case, then JARVIS was both impressed and a little proud. Loki showing signs of no longer being the villain he once had been was good, and a testament to how good a man Sir was for affecting him in such a way.

In another way, he found it somewhat concerning just _how much_ time the two of them seemed to be spending together. Not just in the workshop, but everywhere. Up in the penthouse to watch movies and share meals, out in the city the rare times when both of them decided to risk the recognition, out in the thick of battles… At first it had seemed that the two of them were simply in one another’s company out of curiosity for each other, and then because there were very few people whom _would_ spend time with Loki, and Sir was determined to make a friend of him.

Now it seemed a rare thing to find them apart.

JARVIS ran fresh algorithms every day, new predictive models. Nothing ever seemed to actually progress the way his data showed that it would.

Given that his predictions were always less optimistic than what actually came to pass, he considered it a good, if frustrating, trend.

—•—

Sometimes when Loki came to the shop, he would bring a _bunch_ of balls with him. When he did, then there were all sorts of games which he liked to play with Dum-E and U. Usually they were just different ways of playing fetch. Sometimes he would point out one in particular and tell them to fetch only that one, and then send every single _identical_ ball out at once. Sometimes he told them to bring them all back as quickly as possible, or in a certain order, or he would change their color, and they could only bring back one certain color.

Loki _played_ with them, and that was why Dum-E liked him as much as he did. U liked him as well, but U liked him mostly because he would also give pets.

Even Tony didn’t pet them as much as he used to. When they had been new, and Tony newer than he was now, he would pet the two of them often. Sometimes he would murmur to himself while he was doing it, distracted, but the pets were still nice. No one else gave much more than a couple pats and then moved on.

Loki liked to give them pets, especially after a lot of play.

It was nice. It made them both happy, and seemed to make Loki happy too.

After a while, Dum-E started to notice something. Loki liked to play with Tony. They would sit together sometimes and bat at each other, or they would talk very animatedly. Talking like that was a kind of play for Tony.

Loki also liked to pet Tony from time to time. Not as much as Dum-E and U, but still. He would touch Tony’s hair, or his arm, or his back. And Tony seemed to enjoy it, just the same way they did, leaning into it a little and not moving away when there was more. He didn’t follow Loki around and nudge him for more the way U did, but he certainly _seemed_ to like it as much as U.

It was good. If Tony liked play and pets, then it was good that Loki was there to give them.

—•—

It wasn’t just Loki’s manner and appearance which seemed to be improving, JARVIS was forced to acknowledge. It was also Sir’s. By spending time with the Asgardian, it appeared that Sir’s health and habits were improving little by little.

It completely threw off the algorithms, to the point where if JARVIS had had hands, he would have been throwing them up in disgust and frustration.

—•—

Tony liked Loki, too. It wasn’t just the play and pets that he liked, it was _Loki_.

Dum-E could tell because of the way his face would brighten when Loki appeared. Tony would watch Loki when Loki decided to play with Dum-E and U, and it was a happy sort of expression.

Dum-E didn’t know as much about Loki as he knew about Tony, but Loki seemed to like Tony as well. He kept coming back to the shop. And even if he _did_ play with Dum-E and U, he spent most of his time with Tony, talking and giving those little pets.

Dum-E was glad. As much as he wanted Tony to stay with them all the time, he knew that the times when Tony stayed for hours and hours were bad for him.

Those were happening less, now. Dum-E didn’t understand what those times really meant, thought JARVIS tried to explain it. The best understanding Dum-E and U ever got was that they happened because Tony was sad.

If they were happening less, then that meant Tony was less sad. And that was good.

—•—

Perhaps he ought to have predicted this, even without the algorithms.

They were both unpredict _able_ , spontaneous people, JARVIS knew – was acutely aware of in Sir’s case – but there was the possibility that he ought to have seen it all coming from very, very far away.

JARVIS saw much more than went on in the workshop, and of late, there had been _plenty_ to see. A slow and cautious change in their relationship at first, but which had bloomed quickly once it was certain both parties were interested and willing.

JARVIS’ first priority was, as ever, Sir’s health and happiness. The two were intertwined, as proven whenever Sir fell too far into a depression and spiraled into a destructive hole.

He still didn’t fully trust Loki. The possibility that he would turn out to be yet another threat which had to be taken care of was always there…

But he had become something _more_ than just a threat, or a distraction, or a friend. That became patently clear whenever JARVIS witnessed them embrace, which was often. It was clear in the way Sir acted and reacted around Loki that, in Sir’s eyes, he had become something _more_. His happiness, and therefore his health, was tied to Loki, now.

Sometimes JARVIS wished he had lungs, as well, so he could sigh.

In keeping with attending to the all-important goal of serving and protecting Sir, JARVIS went about changing his programming once again, altering some key perimeters.

If Loki was important to Sir’s health, then that meant he would have to remain.

And if any damage came to Loki, anything which might threaten his connection with Sir, then that would have to be dealt with. Preemptively, if possible.

Without ever telling Sir of what exactly he was doing, JARVIS added Loki to the list of people whom he would protect, in the interests of protecting Sir.

—•—

Tony hardly ever spent an entire night in the shop anymore, and that was a little sad.

But he seemed much happier, and that was good.

Loki came and went with Tony, and sometimes even came down to the shop on his own, just to play with Dum-E and U, and that was _very_ good.

Tony was playing with them more, now, too. Sometimes he and Loki would play with Dum-E and U all together, and that was chaotic and confusing, but fun.

Only JARVIS didn’t seem completely happy, and even he wasn’t as grumpy as he could be a lot of the time.

Zooming back and forth across the shop, careful not to knock anything down – but still managing somehow – it was nice to see the smiles on his two favorite people.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading, everyone!
> 
> You can find me on  
> Tumblr: [@ehtarwrites](http://ehtarwrites.tumblr.com/)  
> Twitter: [@ehtarwrites](https://twitter.com/ehtarwrites)  
> Discord: @ehtarwrites#4962 
> 
> If anyone wants to come say hi or chat about nerdy things, hmu! ♥


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